Hi everyone!

Tuesday morning seemed to be one of the more chaotic days I’ve experienced for a while. Mom had a bunch of meetings at home and I had to go to physiotherapy with Dianne. Plans were quickly made for my Dad to take me to physio and for Granny to come through to the house to baby sit me. My physio session was great, and Dianne was very chuffed with my progress since our last meeting. Additional exercises were explained to my Dad, and Dad was shown the better way to carry me to ensure my legs, back and chest achieve the correct and appropriate development. We arrived home to find that Granny, Tamsin and Opa were there! I was so excited, as the house was abuzz with activity. Dad and Opa had some documents to go through, so I got comfortable with Granny and Tamsin, as Mom’s next appointment was arriving. All too soon Dad and Opa had to leave again, as Dad had to get back to work, and Opa had some matters to attend to as well. The morning marched on with Tamsin, Granny and I sharing heaps of laughter and chatting aimlessly about anything we could think of. Eventually I began to tire, and I went off for a snooze.

I awoke mid afternoon to discover that Mom was getting us ready to go out, and then I remembered: we were going for the viewing of the photos that we had done at last week’s studio photo shoot. At the Avo studios we met up with Dad after he’d knocked off work, and soon we were joined by Bev and Claire. We settled into comfy couches, and on the screen was an enormous picture of me. Leigh darkened the room a little more and the viewing of the slide show started. We had a whale of a time, as enormous pictures of Mom, Dad and I appeared on the screen opposite to where we sat. We cajoled over our funny looks, and cooed over some of the more cute pictures. After running through a selection of almost 100 of the best pics from the hour-long shoot, we started whittling down the images to those that were our most favourite, and that we wanted to embody into memorable frames that would adorn our house. Once our most favourite pictures were identified, Mom and Dad spent some time deciding on designs, configurations and frames. Without too much fuss they settled on the final products, and bid Leigh farewell. She told us it would take a few weeks for the final product to be completed, and we all agreed that we could hardly wait for that day.

Leaving the Avo Studio we were invited to Bev and Claire’s place for dinner. It was the first time Dad had seen their ‘new’ home, and he was suitably impressed at the elegance and effortlessness design and décor of their house. Pretty soon we were sitting outside under the late afternoon sky having snacks and drinks. I lay on a blanket on the lawn and stared up at the silver birch and the clouds beyond that. Soon Chester and Georgia, their two miniature schnauzers, came to say hello. They seemed pretty surprised to see such a little person on ‘their’ lawn. I suspect they’ve not seen a human baby before!!! They sniffed at me, wagged their tails, and to take advantage of the fact that I was at the same height as them they tried to lick me. At some point they decided to bark at me, which I thought was one of the more hilarious things I’d seen, and I started to giggle, much to the schnauzer’s dismay at their barks not achieving the desired effect they bolted to the front yard.

Wednesday Mom and I headed of to Tina’s Baby Club for baby massage lessons (for Mom, not for me, as since I am a baby I don’t need to learn baby massage). It was so funny all us babies lying on the ground with our respective Mommies nearby. The room was filled with baby sounds of squeaks and squeals as our little bodies were manipulated and worked. I loved it initially, but I did begin to tire toward the end. Also, I played with Joseph and Shiobain (the Gaelic version of Chavaughn). Afterward I felt somewhat over stimulated so I decided to nap for the remainder of the afternoon. By late afternoon I awoke to a flurry of activity around the house and I realised it was Mom’s turn to host the girl’s bookclub. As Dad arrived home from work he was immediately set to task to prepare the back patio. I tried staying out of Mom and Dad’s way as the preparations were finalised. Soon the girls started arriving and I was the centre of attention. I spent some time with the girls and then I headed off to the study for the remainder of the evening to watch TV with Dad.

Mid morning Thursday Mom and I went to see Dr Mears, who is my paediatric cardiologist. It was time for a check-up to determine if my pulmonary pressure and the shunt in my heart was reducing, as a result of the numerous procedures I’d been through. She was ecstatic that the ASD (atrial septal defect) in my heart had almost closed up. In fact she felt it was so small it couldn’t be called an ASD anymore. You will recall from my blogs a few months back that as a result of the pressure the AVM in my head caused on my heart, the septum that separates the chambers of my heart ruptured to some degree, causing a hole in my heart, or put more technically, an atrial septal defect.

On the down side, my pulmonary pressure was still double what it should be, but this will be corrected, albeit slowly, with some more procedures and the continued inflammatory response in the fistula in my head. As the inflammatory response continues around the pot scourers (platinum coils and Amplatzer PFA Occluder) in my head my body will try and discard these foreign objects. As these objects are made of platinum my little body cannot rid itself of these items, so will rather deposit substances on it, which is exactly what we want, as it creates an even greater occlusion. Owing to my elevated pulmonary pressure, I must continue with the little blue diamond shaped pills (name withheld as it will prevent this email from reaching you, as it may be considered spam). If you haven’t already figured out what pills I’m talking about, they start with Vi, and end in Gra!

Mom and I, together with Granny, headed off to Cresta on Friday morning to collect their new spectacles. Waiting at the optometrist I began to wonder how my eyes could be tested, since I cannot read, let alone speak! But I guess there is no urgency to have my eyes tested to that degree of meticulousness, as the ophthalmologist already confirmed a few weeks back that my eyes seemed in order. Arriving home on Friday afternoon, Dad reported that temperatures had reached as much as 35°C during the day.

On the speaking front, I’m happy to report that I now converse with my Mom or Dad for the better part of about twenty minutes, uninterrupted. I guess it’s a gene I picked up from Dad, as he’s a non-stop talker as well. Unlike my Dad, who (believes he) uses proper words, my vocabulary is still limited to blowing raspberries, blowing spit bubbles while I gurgle, and, more recently, making sounds by sticking my tongue out. To me this is perfectly normal, but Mom and Dad seem to think it is quite extraordinary.

At Sister Lindie’s Baby Club on Saturday there was massive jubilation, as my weight had now reached 7410grams! Dad immediately SMS’ed Dr Nicoletta with the good news, to which she promptly replied that at this rate of weight gain I’ll soon have to go onto Weighless. Dad SMS’ed back saying he thought it was a good ideas, and in support I would be enrolled for bootcamp on Monday morning! On top of the weight gain I also gained two centimetres in height, which means I’m now towering a full 69cm over the planet.

Once back home, Opa popped by for a visit, and I spent the afternoon showing off to everyone how strong my legs were getting as I jumped up and down in my Jolly Jumper. Opa was most impressed at my levels of activity, but soon I felt some hunger pangs setting in, and pretty soon I was wolfing down a bottle of Infatrini which pulled my eyelids shut.

After waking up mid afternoon we headed down the road to visit with Nina, Jaco and Gene. As there were a couple of thundershowers during the day, Mom took all the accessories for my traveller that would water proof me. The bottom of my traveller worked well to transport Mom and Dad’s drinks for the evening – I’ve always wondered why the bottom of my traveller clinks and clangs with bottles when we head to Nina’s place! Soon after we arrived Craig and Nicolene joined us, who brought with their friend Mark, from Chicago. Apparently he was really grateful for being in South Africa at the moment, as Chicago had been experiencing some cold snaps over the past few days. We chatted and braaied, and obviously did the proverbial of eating and drinking too much. Mom and Dad brought some games with, but we all spent so much time chatting, that before we blinked it was time to head home. By now Gene and I were watching the Disney Channel in the lounge, where Gene had built a securely padded bed for me to lie in so that I wouldn’t get hurt! I really enjoy my time with her, and she loves to look after me. We bid our farewells, and we wished Mark an excellent flight back home the next night. Shortly afterward Mom, Dad and I were strolling up the street en route home, under a beautiful summer sky. All around us we could hear the cicada song of insects. Roxy and Jake were waiting for us diligently at home, and pretty soon we were all settled in for the night, which was briefly interrupted by heavy rains and thunderstorms.

This morning, we headed off to Hyde Park to do some shopping. It was really busy and we struggled to find parking, partly because most of the parking is being taken up by the construction of a new hotel, and partly because it was really busy. We collected some household goodies, spent some time at Health Works looking at all their health and esoteric wares, and then the proverbial hunger descended on Mom and Dad so we lunched at Santorini. Mom and Dad wolfed through their Greek dishes with relish, and then they spotted Harvey Wall Bangers being served, and opted for two of those too! Dessert was ordered in the way of rice pudding for Mom, and three flavours of ice cream for Dad, viz. cappuccino, dolce late and cookies! I savoured some of the rice pudding.

Well that’s a brief synopsis of my past week. There is still no confirmed sighting of my top teeth, but we all agree that they are lurking about there somewhere, very close to the surface. My sleep patterns are still pretty routine, with the usual mid-morning and mid-afternoon naps. At night, after bathing and gulping down some food, I generally get to bed at around 8 o’clock. At around midnight I wake up for a brief ‘midnight snack’ where I raid the fridge for some left over Infatrini or milk, much like Dad would do with leftover pizza or pasta. After going back to sleep I make a point of waking up in time to see Dad off to work the next morning.

A big focus at the moment is the development of my core muscles, which is getting along really well. Sitting upright, with a little support, and holding my head no longer poses a challenge, although doing push-ups is still beyond my capability, which doesn’t make me feel too bad, as most of the world’s population probably couldn’t drop and do twenty in any case!

The plan for the upcoming week is to get back into the routine of my regular appointments to chiro, OT and speech therapy, as well as some social visits to my dedicated medical team to show off my progress.

Well, that’s it for tonight.

Good night, sleep tight, love,

Jarrod

Figure 1 From Avo Studios, here is the montage that we’ve settled on

Figure 2 Also from Avo Studios, the three block mount photos that we chose

Figure 3 Gene spins for us to show-off her beautiful dress

Figure 4 Staring up at the blue sky

Figure 5 Munching on a Lady’s Finger in the great outdoors

Figure 6 Good ‘ole giggles

Figure 7 Occasionally I fall asleep ‘on the job’ of documenting my life

Figure 8 Making good progress holding my own bottle

Figure 9 More more!

Figure 10 Goodnight everyone!

3 Comments on Weigh-less

  1. Lynne says:

    What an absolutely stunning family! I’m so happy to read that you are doing so well and keeping so busy too! Those daddies out there had better lock away their daughters ‘cos you are one extremely handsome little boy!

    Take care all, I hope to see you again soon.

    Love
    Lynne

  2. Claire says:

    Hey, Jarrod! Bev and I have been scouting out places for you to visit down here in the Cape and we’ve agreed that you need to book time in your Mom and Dad’s diaries and arrange a holiday. We’ll fill you in and give you some ideas once we’re back in Jo’burg.

    Take care and we love your pics – such a photogenic family!

    Claire

  3. Bronwyn says:

    Hello.

    Sorry, I have not written to you for a while, please forgive me!!!

    What a gorgeous little boy you are, WOW, watch out girls!!!!!

    It is really amazing to read your blogs now, and to see how you are doing so well and growing so quickly.

    I just love all the photo’s you guys had taken, they are absolutely amazing!!! Such a stunning family!

    Well keep up the good work!

    Love to you all
    Bronwyn

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