Matthew Marsupial

Matthew has been so clingy towards Terri lately! He cries and throws a little tantrum whenever she leaves the room. Terri has began calling him her "little marsupial" because he only seems content when she is holding him. To add visual effect,I photo shopped this picture of a kangaroo & joey that Auntie Kim found online.

Focus on the Family

One of our favorite radio broadcasts is Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson. They are a great organization and we get a lot of our family books and videos from them. On December 7th we were profiled on one of their radio broadcasts. The main broadcast was on "White House Traditions", but if you CLICK HERE, then click "play audio", and fast forward to 21:50, you can hear a 5 minute phone interview where I discuss the impact their broadcasts have had on our family.

Merry Christmas '07

Merry Christmas from the WhoMagoo Family

This picture was taken last week up in Beaver ... We were staying at our neighbor's cabin. Kim purchased these adorable "Pajama Gram" PJ's. Matthew's britches say "WhoMagoo" and our shirts say Magoo Mommy and Magoo Daddy.

Poor Mikey... he was so tired from being a "bad ass(et) log builder" and we didn't give him a chance to shave.

Someday we'll be taking pictures from our own cabin in Beaver!!

Last night when I was getting ready to put Matthew to bed, he kept running to Kim and slamming his head on her chest every time I said,
"let's go ni~night!" He would make a bee line over to the couch and scramble to get on top of Kim. It was the funniest thing.

An early Christmas

My mom ordered these from Lillian Vernon ... and OMG... are they ever cute!!

The Train Top was made in Germany ~ it's soo stinkin adorable ... the train choo choo's and moves around and around ... the gates even open and ding. We love it! I know I can't stop playing with it.

The Jack in the Box, of course is an all time favorite. Matthew is always kissing it and tries to rip it out of the box, so cute.

I have these "lead testers" that you swipe over the toys to be sure it contains no lead. You can find them at Home Depot.

Matthew checking out his heart w/ the stethoscope

We saw our wonderful pediatrician yesterday, Dr. Michael Tenby.
Dr. Tenby gave Matthew a 6 month check up and he received his last vaccine until he's five. He does need to go in for testing to see if his kidney reflux is healed. We will do that after RSV season. I am not looking forward to the VCUG test... poor little guy.

We have one more doctor appointment tomorrow with Dr. Baron, the G.I. doc and then we're done for a while. Thank goodness.

I absolutely dread taking Matthew to any doctor office during RSV season. It's very hard to keep a "twonager" sitting in one place ... I simply won't let him touch a thing. Of course, you can never get out of a doctor office in less than an hour.
I got lucky and his early intervention feeding counselor is going to meet me at the doctor office.....she'd like to discuss Matthew's feeding issues w/ the doc. Matthew is back to not "eating" again; ever since he got sick about a month ago ... he's been retching, too. It's all very strange. Something happens after he takes an antibiotic.

Well, here is the best part of the post!!!!

Is it here??
No, maybe it's here.

Oh yeah.. here too.

Okay.. sounds good.

I understand that it sounds like a muffled washing machine.

Steel Magnolia: Little Drummer Boy ~ playing to Joan Jett#links

Steel Magnolia: Little Drummer Boy ~ playing to Joan Jett#links

Steel Magnolia: I am going to be sick

Steel Magnolia: I am going to be sick

Steel Magnolia: Casey hasn't gone back to the cath lab yet, it's 4:50 ~ think it's going to be a longgggg night

Steel Magnolia: Casey hasn't gone back to the cath lab yet, it's 4:50 ~ think it's going to be a longgggg night

My oldest son, Casey

I will be back sometime tonight with an update on my oldest son's heart surgery. It is called a catheter ablation, they go up thru an artery in his leg and laser off a node or the thick part of his ventricle. (Hope I explained that right.)


I am up and getting ready now while Matthew is sleeping. My mom is coming over to play w/ Matthew while we all go hang out at the hospital. We need to be at "patient waiting" by 11 am. As soon as the doctor is finished w/ his previous patient, he'll take Casey back. They say surgery can be 2 to 6 hours ... then he needs to hang out for several hours after because they are going up thru a main artery. We are expecting an easy fix.

*big sigh*

Here we go.

I hate/dread being in hospitals. It makes my heart hurt thinking of it. This is the same hospital that Matthew (and Mike and I) spent three months of his little life. Ugh.. brings back weird feelings.

WhoMagoo Christmas jammies!!!

Auntie Kim ordered this winter sleeper from Pajama Grams for our little GooMan .... isn't this the cutest dang thing. His nickname is written on the britches of the sleeper.

Remember, he got this nickname when he was first born ~ he was only 4lbs 1 oz, he looked just like a little "Who" from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas .... but then as he got a teeny bit older, he started looking like Mr. Magoo in his white hospital garb and cap...hence the name WhoMagoo. Most of you know that, but this is for those of you who forgot.

Little stinker... crawling into the tub looking for his fish

Proud daddy and son

Mike in uniform ~ getting ready for his Sergeant ride along ~ he passed his Sergeant test. Woot!

Mike as in Mike Huckabee! We like Mike.

Beaver Boy

Matthew in motion.

Matthew teaching PaPa how to eat w/ a spoon. Hee hee!!

Matthew helping w/ the extension cord while Mike makes some stairs.

He had a ball running around ... the little pitter patter of tiny feet.

Running free in the basement.

Just trying to stay warm. Godfrey he's cute!

Helping daddy sweep the garage.

Little Bat Boy waiting for some Cheeto's. Actually, that's a lie .... since he got sick, he's back to NOT eating again. Only tube feeds *big sad face*

Just chillin.

Come on mom, let's get the show on the road! Still not feelin so good.

Little Magpie!!

All bundled up. I think he's eavesdropping on our conversation w/ the concrete guy.

Got some shades, mom??

Magoo playing in the basement

Matthew says his third word, now!

FIVE as in "give me five". In a really sweet little voice, he puts his little Chiclet teeth on his bottom lip and says, "ffffiiiiiiii". He kind of sounds like Stewart on Mad TV. *giggling*

The words he can say now are:

Uh oh, five and no.

He pronounces "NO" as "newwwww". Soooo cute!

Steroid withdrawal

Oh boy.

Today was one of the single most trying days of all times at the King household.
*big huge sigh*

Matthew is going thru some kind of steroid withdrawal ~ he's been inconsolable all day. It was kind of like "baby roid rage". He was gosh darn banging his head on everything, hitting me and hitting himself. He was NOT himself ~ not that sweet little mild mannered boy we all know.
There was nothing I could do to calm him down. Finally, about 5pm, my sister came over and we called doctor ~ he had us give him some Benadryl. That helped a little.

When I say all day long, I am not kidding or exaggerating.
Per doctors orders, we have discontinued the Megace (an appetite stimulant that is a steroid) until he is himself again. Remember, he was on Prednisone for 5 days to help with the wheezing chest. Who knows, after today, I may never give him a steroid again!!!!! Geez Louise.

Not fun. I am emotionally wiped out.

* It's Sunday morning ... the little bugger was up for about an hour or so around midnight and he's been up since 4am ... that is quite unusual.. he typically sleeps from 9~10 pm until 6~7 am.
He's not being as wild though... still a bit temperamental, but not nearly as bad as yesterday.

Wish us luck heading up to Beaver.

Matthew feeling better now

Matthew was a bit sick with rattly,junky, wheezy lungs last Friday thru Monday ...
he was quite cranky and grumpy.

He was put on a five day regimen of steroids and Zitromax. Thank goodness Mitch's office is open on Saturdays ... otherwise we would have been stuck in the ER!!! (We avoid the ER like the plague... so thank GOD!) Doug, the PA was WONDERFUL ~ he took such good care of little Magoo.

Oh goodness, those steroids are always such a joy!!! JUSSSS KIDDING .... I yi yi...
steroids turn this kid into a wild boy ... it's crazy. They sure help w/ the wheezing though.

He's still a bit rattly ... but at least he's coughing it up.

We believe he picked up this unwanted bug at the speech/feeding therapist office ... so needless to say, we have canceled all appointments until after the RSV/flu season.
It's just not worth him getting sick.

This is a picture of us waiting to get in the doctor office.

Steel Magnolia: Casey's heart procedure coming up on Dec. 5th

Steel Magnolia: Casey's catheter ablation scheduled

Steel Magnolia: Baby Isaac is having his second open heart surgery today

Steel Magnolia: Baby Isaac is having his second open heart surgery today

The Meeting Place

Matthew's new table & chairs are the preferred meeting area when Grandma Wright comes over. A good book and Mr. Potato Head make for the perfect play time.

Eating Update

Matthew has made progress with eating. As a result his "GI" doctor prescribed Megace for him (which is an appetite stimulant). Let's all hope that it will further improve his eating. We would love to get him off of the overnight feeding machine. I really hope that the Megace will work because the other stuff available is a marijuana derivative and I don't think I could handle giving that to my child!

Forced Feeding?

Though Matthew has made dramatic improvements in his eating, he still doesn't entirely grasp the concept. This morning he took a few bites of his peanut butter sandwich, then raised his shirt and tried to put the rest into his feeding port. This is a classic example of the challenges "G-tube" babies experience. From a toddler's logical standpoint, it is easier to tube feed than to bite, chew, and swallow. Hopefully his sense of taste will win him over someday.

Matthew sized Workspace

While in California last month Matthew fell in love with Ali Hazelwood's toddler sized table & chairs. So Grandma Wright got Matthew his own as an early Christmas present. Thank God for Grandmothers!

Crazy About Sunglasses

Matthew loves to play with sunglasses. We had to get him his own because he can be rather rough on the arms. While having lunch recently, Matthew helped me try on his shades so he could yank them off my face.

Speech Therapy

This is Dr. Jill Gertz, Matthew's speech therapist. She is great! She gets herself down to his eye level when they interact to encourage eye contact. Matthew has a good time playing with all of Dr. Jill's toys.

Cardiologist Visit

Matthew was a champ!

The cardiologist said there has been no narrowing ... and the leak is the same as before.

That is fantastic news! We go back for another ECHO in six months.

He said when Matthew goes in for surgery, it will be because of the leak and not the narrowing. He mentioned that the conduits can get some kind of sludge build up.

They rate the leak 1 to 10, and his leak is still a 3.

Doctor said that he'll need a conduit change once it gets between 8 and 10; he said to plan on surgery in about 2 years. We'd been told at Stanford that on average, these little guys need a conduit change every three years. So, that would be about right.

We hope medical technology will advance quickly, so that he won't need to go in (approximately) every 3 years.... maybe they can come up with some new kind of tissue or a bovine or pig valve that will last longer.

Thank you so much for your prayers ... we very much appreciate it!! They worked! :-)

(((Hugs))) to you all.

Oh yeah, we tried to go celebrate at IHOP afterwards, but Matthew pitched a HUGE fit as we were sitting down. We got up and left the building. He screamed all the way home.
We didn't know what the heck was going on.

He's been a perfect angel since we walked in the door.

Football Sunday

A Day at the Zoo

A few weeks ago when we were in California we visited the Oakland Zoo. Matthew was fascinated with this giant frog statue.