New info from the howard family.

So lets start with the fun stuff. Garet is doing really well with sitting up on his own. Here is the past week or so he has been getting much stronger. He is starting to like his stomach and is starting to move around a little bit as well. I do not think it will be much longer before he starts to crawl all over the house. It is so amazing how fast they change and learn new things. We are now eating solid foods at dinner each night. That is helping with sleeping all night long. He can now go from 8:30 at night till 5:30 in the morning without a bottle. He does still wake up a couple times but goes right back to sleep.

So as most of you know we have found out that the condition Garet has is caused by a genetic mutation in one of his heart genes. Well Matt and I had to go and get tested as well to see if one of us has the gene mutation as well. Well we got our results back and Matt has the same mutated gene that Garet has. This shows how unpredictable this mutation can be. Matt is now 27 and it has not effected him yet in his life. He has been very active in sports and every other activity you can think of. Garet was only 1 month old when if effected his heart. So we are now starting to see why it is so hard to understand what is going to happen next with this genetic stuff. So now Matt has an appointment with a Cardiologist next week to have an EKG and Eco done to see what his heart looks like right now. We are praying that everything looks fine. If it does they will tell him things that he can change in his life style to keep his heart healthy. If that is the case they will most likely have him come in once or twice a year just for checkup to make sure everything is still looking ok. So this is the step we are on right now. WE are now working on informing all of Matts family so they can make the decision to get tested if they want to. The first two people that we are hoping will get tested is Matts mom and Dad. If it comes back that nether of them have it then no one else will have to be tested. This can eliminate a lot of unnecessary stress on the rest of the family. If they choose not to be tested then both sides of the family will have to get tested so they can have peace of mind. If the rest of them do get tested and it comes back that someone of either side is positive as well, we will then know what side of the family it has came from. Having the adults in the family get tested first is not just for them but for there children as well. And also if there children decide to have children one day. We now have this information in our hands and what we all decide to do with it our decision. I would just hate to see someone not get tested and then have something like what happened to Garet happen to them knowing it could have been prevented or seriously reduced. Well that is all the info that I have on that. I am working on getting some web sites together with more info on what is going on and what could happen in the future.

I will end with another cute picture. This is Daddy and Garet selling shrimp last weekend. Garet really love being outside and thinks it is so much fun helping daddy sell shrimp.

All of out new tricks

Each night we like to have play time right after dinner. We lay out a blanket on the floor and get down and play with all the toys that we have out in the living room. One of Garets new fun things to do is to have us put his shapes on his nose. He thinks it is funny and likes to knock them off on his own. The circle fits the best, but the triangle works well to.
We have just in the past week started to do Baby-led feeding (BLW). We were not having any luck feeding garet the purse's with a spoon. He would get fussy and not want to eat most of the time, or he would eat a couple bites and then he would cry and not want any more. Well I have been doing a lot of reading on this style of babies learning to eat and I think it is a great think for us to try. Each night we sit down to dinner and we put some of the same food that we are eating on Garets tray and let him play with it and put some in his mouth if he wants to. This forces us to not eat a little better. we do not cook with as much salt or butter and reduce the sugar intake. This is suppose to help him learn textures and also learn to feed himself and learn when he is full and all that fun stuff. I really hope it works Well any way the picture below is one of our first successes with this. Matt and I were eating some Ritz cracker and he was sitting there watching us and finally reached out and acted like he wanted one. So we handed him one and he went to town on it. I expected he might gag or even spit up a little while trying to eat it but he did a really good job. He would take a bite and then you could see that he was chewing and then swallowing. It was so much fun to watch him learn right there like that. I had to go out and buy some low sodium Ritz crackers for him so he does not get to much salt. He also ate a little bit of chicken, green beans and mac and cheese. It is so much easier to let him eat on his own. I makes my dinner easier not having to feed him and myself. We have only been trying this for about a week so we will see how it continues to go.

I think he have the next Mozart on our hands. HAHAHA. He does really love his piano and really looks like he is concentrating when he plays it. He can play with his hands and feet. Below is a video with his hands.

Total Relaxation

What I wouldn't give to be able to sleep this sound for just a couple hours. It is so funny the way little ones can fall asleep and sleep so sound. The past couple of night have been the first night that Garet has truly slept threw the night. He went to bed around 9 and slept until 6:45. Grandma Rose said it was because he put him to sleep the past 2 nights. Well since she had to go back to IL today lets home that mommy and daddy can put him to sleep the same way she was. It has been a very nice couple of nights being able to stay in bed all night long. This week Garet is getting to spend some time with his Granny and next week he is going to start going over to his nannies house. All the kids call her MiMi. So when I start to speak of her in my posts you will know who I am talking about. We are so excited to have found MiMi and can not wait for Garet to get used to going over to her house during the week while we are at work. No health update right now. Things have been going about the same. His next dr visit is not until the 28th and I am sure by that time he will have gained so much weight. He is getting so big. As soon as I have any updates I will let you all know. Hope all is going well with everyone else.

Just some cute pictures

This one is Garets fuzzy hair after he got out of his bath the other night.

The next couple pictures are just some that we took the other night while we were playing in Garet room

This last picture is one of a series that Daddy took yesterday. Garet and Astro are becoming good buddies now that garet can play with him a little bit. It is so amazing how dogs now that they have to be gentle with him.

5 months old today

5 months old today. My goodness how time has gone so fast. I know it only continue to go faster. We feel so blessed with everything that has gone on so far. we know that Garet is going to grow up to be a very strong individual. We can see it in his personality already. He seems to surprise us everyday with all the new things that he is learning. Above is a picture of his first bath time in the real bath tub. He is getting to big for the sink anymore, plus he has learned how to splash and we would end bath time with the kitchen floor and surrounding counter tops being soaked with water.

It looks like we have found a great person to take care of Garet for us while we are at work once Grandma Rose goes home to IL. It looks like Grandma is going to be going home in about a week and we will miss her so much. It looks like the person that will be caring for Garet will be like a 3rd grandma to him and will love him just as much as we do. We feel so blessed to have found her and can not wait to have her be a big part in helping us raise Garet in a great way.

We are going to try to make it to the beach this weekend with Grandma Rose. She seems to think that she should make it to the beach at least one time while she is in Florida and we agree with her. She has done so much work while she has been here that we would love to have a nice relaxing weekend for her last weekend here. We should also get some cute picture of Garet at the Beach. This will be his first time to the Beach and I can not wait to see what he thinks of the sand and all the water.

Hello from Garet

I am getting so bid and wanted to let you all know how I am doing. As you can see by my picture I am getting so big and starting to do so many new things every day. I have now rolled from my belly to back and back to belly. I do not do this very often but when I do mommy and daddy cheer for me so maybe I will start to do this more often. I had a cardio dr appointment on the 20th. It went really well, they did the normal stuff. They weighed me and on there scale I weighed 14 lbs and 11 oz. Mommy and Daddy thought there scale might be off so a couple days later they took me to my regular doctor to get a weight check and there scale said I weighed 15lbs and 9oz. They thought that was more like it. I am still right around 26 inches long. They also did the EKG and ECO and it looks like my heart function has gone up a little bit. It was around 30% and now they say it is close to 37% so yeah my heart is pumping a little bit better. I knew all the jumping I had been doing in my jumpy thing was going to pay off at some point. They took away one dose of another one of my diuretic that make me pee. Now I only have to take it in the morning so that helps with my super wet diapers in the middle of the night. Most nights I can go without Mommy or daddy having to change my diapi. They have also upped my medicine that is helping my heart to pump more. It seem every time they take a med away they are giving my more of another one. That is ok with me because I am getting really good at taking all my meds and most of the time do not give mommy, daddy or grandma rose to much trouble when they try to give them to me. I also got to go and visit some of my nurses in the PICU when we were in Gainesville. It was so great to see them and show them how big I am getting. Granny made some cookies for us to take with us. Those nurses always like to eat food.

Mommy, Daddy and Grandma Rose have starting to introduce a bunch of new and yummy foods to me. They will try a new one for 4 days before they give me another new one, just to make sure I do not have an allergic reaction to any of them. So far so good. I have had sweet potatoes, Carrot, and green bean. My favorites are the fruits. I have got to try bananas and apple sauce. I like them so much that they make me laugh as I eat them. I am still eating cereal with my fruit for breakfast and I of course still love my bottles. I am eating about 6oz at each feeding. No wonder with all this good food I am gaining weight so well.

Well that is about all that is going on in my life right now. Mommy and Daddy have been busy looking for someone that I can go and stay with during the day while they are at work. Grandma Rose is going to have to go home at the end of September and I will miss her very much but I understand that she has to go home and take care of Grandpa and Mugsey(there dog) We have visited with so many really nice people but they have not been able to make any decisions yet. I hope they find someone great that will help me learn all that I can.

Well I think I am going to try to take a nap now so I will talk to you all again soon. Thank you so much for all the prayers from everyone they are really helping me continue to grow and gain strength.

Busy and Exciting Weekend

This past weekend was a very special weekend for our family. We were finally able to have Garet baptised. We had planned to have him baptised before he went into the hospital but that was delayed a little while. So this past weekend we had a great time with family and friends. Garet looked like such a little man in his outfit. He is just growing up to fast. When we were sitting at the house before church I was kind of getting worried because Garet had not taken a nap yet that morning. Well the short car ride to church was enough to do the trick. He slept threw the first part of church and woke up just in time for his baptism.

Garet and Pastor Roger did a great job during the baptism. Garet was in a good mood and had no issue with having Pastor Roger putting the water on his head. Garet even gave a few smile as Pastor Roger walked up and down the isle with him to show him off to the church.

We were very lucky to have so many family and friends there to share in this exciting time in Garets life. Uncle Erik was able to come down from IL and stand up and take the responsibility of being Garets God father. Aunt Amanda was there as well and will be the best God mother that Garet could ask for.

Garet has started to like having his picture taken so he had no problem with all the pictures that we wanted to take after church and then some more when we got back to the house.

When we got to the Church Sunday afternoon, there were some beautiful flower waiting there for Garet. His Great Aunt Ginny from IL had sent flowers to the church to help make it look beautiful on Garets special day.

When we got back to the house we were all able to change into some comfy clothes. Aunt Sheri had bought all the boys matching outfits and wanted to take on the task of trying to get them to take some pictures together.
We got some pictures of the three cousins all together and from these we can for sure say that boys will be boys and it will be fun to show them these when they get older.

We had a great cake that Grany brought and Garet thought it would be fun to stick his foot in it while we were trying to take his picture. If he had been just a little bit older we might had let him lick it off, but we did not want to take any chances with giving him really sugary food like that.

Garet got some special gifts to help him remember the day when he gets bigger. He did a great job of opening them up. He was more interested in the paper than the gift but it was fun to see him try to rip the paper and put it in his mouth.

When everyone had gone home it was nap time for both Garet and Grandpa. This is the first time in a long time that he has taken a nap on his belly like this. He normally does not take very long naps on his belly because he always wakes himself up. But with it being such a busy day I think he could have slept anyway. What a better way to sleep then on Grandpas belly.

We ended the weekend with the Jaguar game and daddy had to make sure that Garet had his #1 fan shirt on to give the Jaguars as much help as we could.

We have many more pictures is anyone is interested I will have them burned on a cd or I can email them out to you just let me know. After this weekend we are ready to just have a few weekends to just sit back and relax.