San Fran

We wrapped up our trip with three days in San Francisco. Since we still had the rental car we stopped at the John Muir woods on our way into town.

The trees here were beautiful as well.  With their towering height, not much sunlight makes it down to the ground and it almost feels like you're in some storybook forest. 

Once we made it into the city, we made sure to hit up all the regular tourist sites - Chinatown, Ghirardelli square, Fisherman's wharf, Sausalito, and Union Square. Probably our three most favorite things though were:

Alcatraz 

You get a great view of the Golden Gate bridge as you take the ferry across and the included audio tour given by former guards and prisoners really makes the old prison come to life.

 

The Cable Cars

After the uphill trek from the subway to our hotel we decided that the cable car pass was worth it especially since there was a stop just outside our hotel. We had a lot of fun riding the different routes and it got us just about everywhere we wanted to go. All in all, it was a great way to see the city and avoid having to hike up all of those hills.

Beach Blanket Babylon

No photos for this one as it is a theater production with the distinguished title of “World’s Longest Running Musical Revue.” It's a constantly updated musical spoof known for its extravagant costumes, outrageously large hats, hilarious puns of pop culture and political character. I'm not sure when we've laughed so hard and would highly recommend it for anyone heading to San Fran.

After all of that it was Thanksgiving day and after one last minute mishap by not realizing the subway system doesn't run on holidays until 8am (which didn't help us and our 7:15am flight) we were glad to leave California behind and head back to what we were most thankful for. As expected, Josh had a great time with Nana and Grandad and we were amazed at what a "big kid" he became in the week we were gone. I guess absence is good for giving you perspective.

Life is a highway

For the second phase of our northern California vacation, we drove from wine country to the coast and spent two days cruising up and down Highway One.  The drive was beautiful but we were glad that we didn't drop the extra moola for the convertible because it was quite chilly and intermittently rainy. 

Our first stop was for a picnic and some hiking at Point Reyes National Seashore and Lighthouse

And yes the hike back up from the lighthouse was a little painful

The fresh air (and lack of a baby monitor) added up to a great nights sleep with the ocean crashing in the background from our room at the Bodega Bay inn. The next morning after probably the best breakfast I've ever eaten (Salmon eggs benedict in the old logging town now turned hippe hot spot Occidental) we set out to marvel at the redwoods in the Armstrong Grove.  It was raining so we pretty much had the place to ourselves but unfortunately it meant the pictures also didn't come out great.  Given their size though I think it would be hard to capture in a photo how amazing these trees are in person. 

We spent the rest of that day and all of the next driving up and down Highway One chatting, singing to the radio and stopping wherever looked interesting. 

For the way back to the inn, we opted to drive back in over the mountains and despite another slow and curvy drive, we were treated to some amazing views. 

We topped off the this part of our vacation with the best meal of the entire trip at Barn Diva, a farm to table restaurant in Healdsburg.  Scott and I still talk about this place and how amazing his steak and my lobster risotto were and the cucumber martini is definitely worth a return trip.  

By this point we were definitely missing the munchkin but thankfully Nana kept us updated with daily pictures so it was on to San Francisco. 

Vacation time

The week before Thanksgiving we set out for some vacation time - Scott and I were off for some baby-free time in California and Josh was excited to spend time with Nana and Grandad. 

We had an extra seat on our flight to Texas and Josh thought he was such a big boy in his own seat. 

Early the next day, Scott and I set off for San Francisco and we kept feeling like we were missing something at the airport.  It's amazing how leaving the toddler behind makes you travel lighter.  Once we made it to California we set off for a few days in Napa. 

The views were beautiful and we spent the afternoon checking out a few wineries.  The jet lag from our east coast time zone coupled with a few glasses of wine made us feel a little like senior citizens with a 5pm dinner and bedtime before 8 but we figured it was one of the benefits of a baby free vacation.  Unfortunately, it also resulted in a 4am wakeup time, but luckily as we had learned in our newborn days, you can always find an episode of Law and Order on TV to watch. 

We sampled several more vineyards both large and small but for us the best thing about wine country was the food.  I even got to meet my favorite Food Network chef - Michael Chiarello at his store next to his restaurant so he could autograph my cookbook. 

Relaxed and with our vacation budget already blown by our wine purchases, we set off for a few days exploring the California coast.

Fall fun

The weekend after Halloween we had a great time hanging out at the house enjoying the crisp fall air.

Josh loved the baby pumpkins.  He spent a lot of time rearranging my fall decorations and banging them together which always prompted lots of clapping.

We practiced blowing kisses

And went on some great walks (while looking super cute in the dragon hoody and puffy vest)

There was time to roll around in the leaves 

Then when the sun went down, it was time to break out the pom-pom hat and pick up some sticks.

And we capped off the day by "hanging" out with Dad.

Just a little off the top

After several off-kilter and finger-risking attempts at a home trim from me, we decided it was time for Josh's first real haircut.  While feeling the wind in your hair is a good thing, when it starts to curl over your ears and collar it starts to be a little too much.

Josh wasn't too sure what was about to happen



Luckily his first sucker made for a great distraction



Hey, watch the ear.

Are you done yet?

Thanks Miss Kim.  Even though it made him look like such a big boy we loved his new "do".

Blessed are the pure of heart...

When we moved to Ohio it took us a while to find a church that fit with Scott's Catholic background and my Methodist upbringing.  Evidently we just needed to become Lutherans and it all seemed to fit.  Now that we had a church home, we had Josh baptized in early November. 

Right now all Josh thinks about church is that it's the neat place with the different toys and the nursery ladies that fawn over him but hopefully with time it will start to mean something more.

The Gospel lesson that day was the reading of the beatitudes from the book of Matthew which I think has wonderful attributes to instruct Josh in for his Christian life.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.


The line about those who are pure of heart holds so many meanings for us.  Even while his heart was (and now I guess still is) broken, the innocence and joy that he approaches life with are really I think the true lesson for us.  We'll try to keep paying attention.

Where to begin?

I've had big plans for updating the blog for the last month.  It was on the "post-boards" list and I've got all sorts of posts started about Josh's baptism, our fall vacation, Christmas and just life in general.  But I find myself back here tonight for the original reason the blog was started in the first place - to keep those who love us updated on the health of our sweet munchkin. 

I mentioned in one of my lasts posts about our trip to Virginia that we had to take Josh to the ER there for a high fever.  We were told that he had pneumonia because of an irregular area on his chest xray and he was started on some antibiotics.  That encounter started a several month trend of one to two weeks of health followed by weeks of fever, wheezing and congestion.  Everytime we'd take him to the pediatrician, they'd do an xray and say it looked like pneumonia.  We tried changing antibiotics, steroid tapers and breathing treatments with temporary improvements.  After the fourth occurrence just before Christmas, our pediatrician referred us to a pediatric pulmonologists who seemed unconvinced about the pneumonia.  He thought Josh probably had asthma that was exacerbated by the standard toddler runny noses but he wanted to do a CT scan to rule out other lung malformations or interstitial diseases.  Another few episodes of bad wheezing with some blue lips also bought us an faster than planned follow up with our cardiologist who also didn't seem concerned.  However, he knew that kids with a history of venous problems can sometimes present with wheezing so he wanted to do another echocardiogram just to be safe and for kicks, since we we already scheduled for a Chest CT he had them add an angiogram to look at the vessels around J's heart.  With instructions to wait for at least four weeks without any signs of infection to get the most accurate results, we set into wait until the end of February to have everything done.  Well that was yesterday. 

We were hoping and praying that asthma would be a quick and tidy diagnosis to make sense of the last few months but instead one of our worst fears was seen.  The angiogram shows that the left pulmonary veins are likely completely occluded meaning for the non-medical folks that no oxygenated blood gets back to Josh's heart from his entire left lung.  Even worse, it looks like it has been that way for a long time and they confirmed that by looking back at his echo from last March.  With 20/20 hindsight they can't even identify the left veins on that scan.  Our cardiologist says it may have even been this way since they day we brought him home.  Essentially what it means with no exaggeration, is that he only has one functioning lung.  Now that would explain why even the lightest cold seemed to always turn into something more.  Unfortunately with the intubation and general anesthesia yesterday coupled with a runny nose the cycle has started again.  We spent five hours in the ER last night with a baby unable to breathe comfortably with a fever and congestion and a chest xray that looks like - you guessed it - pneumonia.  This latest infection is also going to put a delay into getting to another answer for what next.  They will need to do a cardiac cathertization to look at the pressures in both the left and right veins and see how the obstruction is effecting the other delicate balances of pressure flows and see if there is any chance of saving the left side.  Given how scarred and blocked the veins look and the fact that he's giving me four weeks to let my medical imagination run wild, I asked our cardiologist who I trust beyond words to summarize a best and a worst case scenario.  For the best possibility, there might be some small flow through the left which will mean another heart surgery like we had before to try to save the left lung.  Worst case is everything there is essentially dead and with the changes in flow will so significant that they will need to remove his left lung.  Pretty much the only in between is that the problem isn't fixable but that surgery to remove the lung could be postponed for now.  We are obviously devastated about all of this but the thought of our sweet, chatty baby losing his lung is just not comprehensible.  We're trying to keep the perspective from our cardiologist that he's essentially been living on one lung for at least a year now and honestly you would really have no idea.  We're even almost ready to make quips about how if this is how rambuctious he is with one lung we're not sure we could handle him having two.  Almost.

So for now again we wait.  Our cardiologist is going to a conference next week where he will see our surgeon from Michigan and they will  confer about his situation.  We're going to go on germ lockdown so they can get the best sense of his lungs at their healthiest state and plan for the cath in early April.  And then we'll see.