Responsible Spencer

Every six weeks at school there is a different character/attribute that can be awarded to the kids who are examples of that character/attribute. For the first six weeks Responsibility was the character and to my astonishment Spencer was chosen. I was shocked, but then I realized that there are 6 kids in his class so there wasn't a lot of kids to choose from. Spencer is a wonderful kid and brings lots of joy in our home; not to mention he always keeps us on our toes, but responsible is not a word that I would use to describe him. If you know Spencer, you know that he has done everything from spilling used cooking oil all over the house, to closing the garage while my trunk was opened, and even managing to blow up our microwave. Spencer must have split personalities and leaves his responsibility personality at school. The good side to all this is it makes me look good as a parent, he may not exhibit the qualities needed to be qualified as a responsible child at home, but as long as he does it for others then I will take it and be proud to call Spencer my responsible three year old.

National Museum Day

Every year around September is National Museum Day and a lot of cities have a free day to the museums. As a family we decided to take advantage of this day and go and visit four of the seven museums in Fort Worth. Knowing that this super deal would attract a large amount of people we prepared by leaving early and getting to our first museum close to opening time. We also had something else in our corner, rain. Not just a sprinkle, but a down pour. We thought for a moment of not going, but realize going to a museum would be a perfect indoor activity. Because of the rain we arrived at the museum a few minutes after opening, but because of the rain there was hardly anyone there. We went to the children's museum first and we had the museum to ourselves for a good hour before it started to get too crowded. The kids had fun doing science experiments, creating with different art mediums, and putting their imagination to use.

After the children's museum we went over to the National Cowgirl Museum. This museum is more over my kids with very little hands on activities so I saw a good opportunity to go to a museum because there was nothing to lose-it was free. Because of the lack of hands on activities and small size of the museum, it didn't take us long to tour the museum. The kids did have fun riding a mechanical bull and watching a play back tape of them in a pretend rodeo.

After this we decided to brave an art museum. The Kimball Art Museum had a special exhibit going on of Mayan art and we thought Anthony out of all of our kids might enjoy looking at the art. Well lets just say our vision didn't go as planned, but it is a good thing that it was free. The museum was quiet as a library and so every noise our kids made was magnified. We got several looks by other patrons as we tried to describe the various art pieces to our children, and I think Spencer gave several of the museum workers heart attacks because of his close proximaty to the art work. Lets just say we quickly toured the museum and moved on before we annoyed too many people by bringing three children to an art museum.

We ended our tour at the Log Cabin Village. By this time the rain had stopped which was good because this museum is all out doors. The museum consists of a handful of restored log cabins and they are set up that you can go and look inside and learn about how life was in the 1800s. The kids were able to learn how to make candles, how to blacksmith, how the corn mills worked, and how the women took wool and turn it into string/yarn. The kids really enjoyed their visit and learning about how many of their ancestors lived. I was pleased at how kid friendly the Log Cabin Village was.

By this time it was late afternoon and we had spent five hours tour the museums of Fort Worth, as parents we were successful at wearing out the kids and having a good time together as a family. I think this will be a new tradition that we will do every year.

Breakfast with Daddy

At Spencer's school, they had doughnuts with Daddy. Grant being the great Daddy that he is, joined Spencer and 500 other dads with their kids for breakfast at school. Grant reported that while waiting in line for their treat, Spencer looked up and told his daddy "this is fun." Based on that I think it is safe to say Spencer enjoyed his special treat and time with Daddy.

Farewell

On September 8th, we had to say farewell to a pivotal person in Madeline's health and well being. Madeline's cardiologist, Dr. Lashus, was moving on to greater and better things. We received news of this move in early July and I have to admit that I cried a bit. Dr. Lashus is the kind of doctor where Madeline isn't a number or another patient, but a real person. Dr. Lashus was the kind of doctor that knew Madeline would want to live a full life and he did whatever it took to have Madeline's heart allow her to live the full life she desired.

I first encountered Dr. Lashus when Madeline was first born and in NICU. It was his turn to do rotations to all the heart kids in the hospital. I was impressed with his people skills and with how he explained such a complicated organ in the most simplistic terms. I kept his name in the back of my mind as I knew I would need to pick a cardiologist.

Madeline spent the first year of her life in the hospital for respiratory distress and each time he would come and visit Madeline and check on her, even though he was not the cardiologist in charged. Whenever, Madeline would have her surgeries he would make it a point to come and visit everyday and check on her. I remember once specific trip to the hospital where he dropped by to check on his Madeline. While answering all my questions, Dr. Lashus had a flash light in the shape of a pen that Madeline was fascinated by. He seeing Madeline's fascination proceed to take the flashlight out of his pocket and give it to Madeline. Madeline, who was feeling ill whose body was working hard to breath, lit up with excitement over a special present from a very special cardiologist.

At every clinic visit, Dr. Lashus would learn of Madeline's arrival and would seek her out and say hello, he was always excited to see Madeline and Madeline was excited to see him. Dr. Lashus had a way of making clinic visits seem not too scary for a little girl who has been through so much and has endured lots of pain.

In the early days of Madeline and being overwhelmed by the fact that I was a care taker of a little girl whose heart was not whole and complete; Dr. Lashus was there to answer any questions, calm any fears, and give me confidence I needed to undergo such undertaking.

It isn't everyday that you come across a doctor with such love and compassion for not only his patient but the family as well. It isn't everyday where you come across a doctor where your daughter isn't a number or another patient to cross off for the day, but a person with a unique and special heart different from all other patients. It isn't everyday where you find a doctor that addresses all your concerns and takes the time to answers your questions even if it takes awhile and even if he has to repeat himself.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful medical team for Madeline. Madeline eight doctors are great and together with their magic and knowledge Madeline is living a very full life. Though we are sad to see Dr. Lashus go, we know he is going to do great things and touch many more peoples lives.

On a side note: One thing nice about cardiologist at the Children's Hospital is that the cardiologist work closely as a team, and so our new cardiologist (Dr. Schutte) is already familiar with Madeline and her heart history. Plus for the first time in Madeline's earthly existence Madeline will now have a female doctor.