Little Climber and Pre-K

Jasiu barely started walking at 12 months and now two months later he is running, not only is he running, he is climbing, riding and getting into lots of trouble.  It is so good that his heart and all that he has been through has not affected him as much as we were afraid it would. He truly is right where he should be developmentally and cognitively.  He knows that he has to go down the stairs on his belly and knees and sometimes starts off in the middle of the kitchen and ends up scooting back all the way under the table instead of the stairs which makes him pretty mad because he didn't get to where he wanted, so he goes forward again and looks behind him and scoots down the stairs. We still walk behind him, just in case that he would forget and turn around or stand up on the stair and possibly get hurt but this doesn't happen often at all. He also figured out how to move forward on his ride on toys and now loves them.  He can put blocks together and says "bye bye" and waves his hands when I go to work or anyone leaves. He also gives kisses to Mommy and daddy and grandparents and blows kisses to us and everyone else. (We try not to get in too close contact with non family members) Just this week he learned that he can use other objects to get to what he wants, ie. he will use his play golf clubs to get toys he can't reach on the couch, he will bring his sister's little chairs and place them next to the couch so that he can get on it. Yesterday as I was fixing dinner I found him with that same chair next to the coffee table and I'm sure his ultimate goal was to get on top of it. Joe was holding the chair and "supervising" while I just had to get picture of this. We have  baby proofed a lot of cabinets now and have a blockade around the TV. He has already tried to fit his little foot between the slits to see if he can get higher and used the same plastic golf clubs to see if he can "touch" the TV. I tell you he is a handful, a typical boy and though it's tough always having one eye on him, I wouldn't have it any other way.



Ohh ohh mom caught me :0

 



We have a climber









He is an awesome eater now and we are so thankful. I don't even mind having to distract him to eat because he is eating and that is what matters. He could have just finished his meal and Joe or I get home from work and he has to have some of what we are eating. Also he still likes his bottles, though they haven't gotten any larger he takes them on my lap while cuddling. I.LOVE. IT.  I like to think he's making up for the lost time when he was fed through the NG and we never got to feed him in our arms for the first 5 months because feedings were so difficult.



I really hope that Jasiu continues to be as smart as his big sister. Emily is going to start her first year in English school this fall. She will  be in Pre Kindergarten for 4 year olds and she will not even turn 4 by the first day of school since her birthday is August 30th and school now starts middle of August, but she still meets the age requirement of 4 by September 1. She will be the youngest in her class and she has not attended the PK-3 because of Jasiu and us wanting to prevent her from bringing germs and sickies home. She knows all her colors, numbers and singing the alphabet with recognizing a lot of letters in Polish AND English. She also started speaking English over the last four months. We really didn't have much of an approach to teaching her English, just turned on Nick Jr. and let it go from there. We now also translate to her most of what we say so that she is better prepared for school. Speaking to me and Joe and grandparents in Polish is still a requirement because we don't want her to forget Polish. She barely started English and is already choosing it over Polish, but I think it's because is something new that she likes. She is like a sponge and can already carry on a decent conversation in English (after only 4 months !!!) Just amazing to me. When I came here from Poland when I was 9 years old and didn't speak a word of English, it took me a full year of school to learn and another full year to be fluent. It was quite emotional to sign her up to school but she is so excited. She got to meet her teacher and see the classroom the day we went. She is pretty social, not shy at all and loves doing project so i think she will do just fine. She will go 3 days a week for 3 hours. I'm sure the only adjustment we will have to make is an earlier bed time.  Since her time flew by so quickly I'm sure Jasiu's is just around the corner.

These two love each other so much and I had so much fun spending all day today with them just playing, nothing else...

These two are the best

She loves to dance

Climbing down

Superstar

More attempts at climbing

Mission : Demolition Barbie house





Details for Walk - June 3, 2012

Today I had a busy day figuring out how to register, register myself and Joe and Emily for the "Kids Dash", set up Team Jasiu and the fundraising web page, e-mails to co-workers for donations and Facebook messages for getting the information out about all the details... It's a lot of work trying to get this thing organized.. but I'm sure it will pay off and it's already proving to be so rewarding. Next year I'm starting sooner!

So here it is -

*** Sunday June 3, 2012  *** 8 am ***

*** Keeler Park 93rd and Keeler Ave *** Oak Lawn, IL ***

If you are interested in joining us for the walk (our team will be walking considering we will have a double stroller with us) you must register on active.com. Click here for the registration website.

Step 1 - Set up your e-mail address and password for active.com

Step 2 - Accept Waiver Choose   "Team Members - Register for your team" then choose  "Team Walkers - Register for your team" then agree to the waiver and type in your name to sign electronically.

Step 3 - Complete Form - you can register yourself and fill in all the information and then once you are done you can choose the option to register someone else (spouse or friend) and then you will only have to pay the various registration fees once per person. ($20 for each walker which includes T-shirt) In this step you must choose TEAM JASIU to indicate you will be joining our team, no password leave this section blank.

Step 4 - Payment (self explanatory) Note a convenience fee will apply.

Step 5 - Print your receipt (it will also be e-mailed to you). 

You will also be able to set up a fundraising website if you choose to raise funds on your own from neighbours or co-workers or you can use my link below if you don't want to bother with that.  

Kids Dash !

If you are interested in also entering your kids in the Kids Dash which will be following the 5K run/walk at around 9:30 you can do so also by following step 2-4 but instead of choosing "team members - Register for your team" Choose "Individual Registration" and then choose Kids Dash $10 (kids will get a t-shirt and a medal). You can register the kids at the same time you are registering yourself once you go through your steps 2-3 and you must sign for your kids. If Kids are in strollers they do not have to be registered for either event.

Donations !

If you can not join us for the walk and still wish to contribute you may do so by helping us raise funds for the cause.  The website to donate can be found by clicking here. From this page you can click on "Home" in the top navigation bar and it will take you to the official website for the Run/Walk and you can get more information.

Running For Hope ~ From the Main Donations website~

In 2011, over 1,400 community members, corporate partners, patients and families attended this event and raised over $80,000. We are excited to announce that the 5th annual 5k event will be held June 3, 2012. This year’s event will once again benefit The Ronald McDonald House® near Hope and Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital. We hope you will join us this year in helping to raise $100,000. Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital is the largest freestanding pediatric medical facility in the south and southwest suburbs of Chicago. The hospital offers a Level 111c neonatal intensive care unit, one of the largest pediatric cardiology programs in Illinois, and an internationally recognized pediatric hematology and oncology division. The 69-bed institution has expanded its services to families by partnering with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicago & Northwest Indiana (RMHC-CNI).   The Ronald McDonald House® near Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital provides a “home away from home” for families of children receiving treatment at Hope Hospital. This 16 bedroom House offers comfortable rooms where families can get a good night’s rest knowing their child is close by. The money raised from this event helps with the operational costs of the House. Thank you all for your interest and help in any way you can. It means so much to us. Let's help reach the oveall goal for Advocate Hope Children's and Ronald McDonald House.

Running for Hope 5k Run/Fun Walk

I decided to sign up Team Jasiu for the Running for Hope 5K Run/Walk.

Sunday, June 3, 2012 @ 8:00 AM

Keeler Park, 93rd St. & Keeler in Oak Lawn

I know it's kind of late ( a little over a month's notice) but I always say better late than ever and usually now with 2 kids in tow, we are late a lot :(  To my defense, I just found out about this event this Saturday and decided that Team Jasiu is on.

The donation proceeds that are raised will be used for Advocate Hope Children's hospital and the Ronald McDonald's house right next door to the hospital. You can read more about the walk on the official website description here. 

We love Hope Hospital, we are lucky to be so close to an excellent hospital with such a wonderful heart center that I feel like we have to give back in any way we can since it has been such a major part of our lives this past year.

Jasiu, Emily, Joe, my two sisters and me are Team Jasiu (so far) !

I hope to raise awareness about this event in hope to recruit runners or walkers (we will be walking) to join our team. I am in the process of creating the team website where each person will be able to register. I will post it here and on my Facebook page as well. If you can not join us for the walk any donations are truly appreciated. I think our first year we won't set an official monetary goal but see what Team Jasiu  can do. I know we have a lot of fans and supporters so we can't wait to see how much we can raise.

Stay tuned for more information.  Let the training begin...





Easter 2012

I'm happy to report that Easter 2012 was a success and we were back to our old routine and the kids loved it.

Last year during Easter Jasiu was "interstage" (time between  the first two surgeries which often is the most fragile time for a child with HLHS). Since we wanted to spend the Holiday as a family of four together and didn't want to leave either parent at home with Jasiu our family was nice enough to bring the Easter celebrations to our house. It was different, but still spent with the people we love the most.

I keep saying it over and over, but truly, what a difference a year makes !

This year we almost spent Easter at home again but for a different reason. On Tuesday night Jasiu was awfully cranky and totally not himself. On Wednesday early morning (3am) when he woke up to eat, I noticed he was really warm. I fed him gave him some time to cool off and took his temp. It was 99.5ish. Since technically this isn't a fever, and he went back to sleep no problem, I didn't give him anything until the morning to see if  it was just temporary. At 7 am his temp was 101.4 (officially a fever). During the day grandma was monitoring the temp and medicating with Tylenol but the lowest it went was 100. I called the doctor's office to let them know and to find out the right dosage of the Tylenol because the last time we were using it was when Jasiu weighed a lot less. (We were lucky he wasn't sick with a fever and haven't used Tylenol since the Glenn) I also made an appointment for the following day just in case things got worse, and worse they got! Thursday on top of the Tylenol we administered Motrin because the Tylenol was just not working. The combination of the drugs worked during the day but as they wore off the fever came back and when I took Jasiu to the doctor on Thursday after work it was 6 hours since his last medicine dosage and his fever hit 103.  It turned out that ears were clear, he had no runny nose or cough, it was just his throat, some sort of virus and we just had to keep an eye out on it just in case it got worse or other symptoms occurred.  But by Friday night he was back to himself and even his appetite increased. On Saturday he already had breakfast and bottles as usual, no fever and mood was completely back to normal.  However today (Tuesday) Jasiu's nose started running, so I think he wasn't completely over that virus, or it spread to his sinuses and Emily is now snotty as well :( ohh such is the life with toddlers.

So we took Jasiu with us to bless our Easter baskets and dressed him up in the Polish Highlander traditional outfits. Emily and Jasiu looked so cute.  On Sunday, we passed on the early morning Resurrection mass at 5:30 am since we didn't want cranky children for the remainder of the day and just attended a regular Sunday mass at 7:30 am, breakfast and brunch at the Klimek residence and then dinner at the Hyc residence with the Krol side of the family.  Emily and Jasiu got to spend time with cousins on both sides and they had a blast.

Before going to bless our Easter baskets



After blessing  at Grandparent's house




Easter day after brunch - Kids playing (story time with uncle Damian)


We are so blessed to  be able to spend another holiday as a family and outside of the hospital and with Jasiu doing so well. As I thought about the events of the Holy Week and how Jesus' mother had to witness her son's death so that we all could be saved, I couldn't help but to pray the same prayer that thousands of mothers pray each and every day "God, thank you for this day and please spare my son's life so that we may have another day. Amen."

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter as well.

Walking Walking Everywhere

This will be really short ( I forgot to include in yesterday's post.. how could I forget !)...

Jasiu is walking !!!

He started right on his birthday and in the month since his birthday party he has been getting better and better with now being able to stand up from anywhere and not just by hanging on to furniture. He does stand up and fall on his bottom when he is quite tired at the end of the night but that doesn't stop him. He is also choosing to walk most places rather than crawl, so even he knows he's getting better and faster.. look out we will have a runner in about a month. Scary for mommy to even think about. 

 Here are a couple of videos of our little guy taking his confident steps.

The other video is of my two wonderful kiddos playing in their play room, don't mind me and asking Emily questions (you can tell her English is picking up really well).  My two silly monkeys.

(Note, I only speak to my kids in Polish so for my English only readers, sorry :(  )