Howdy!

YAAAAWWWNNNNN... oh!... here I am!

That was a nice week nap of blogging I took! When you do the 100-mile dash of everyday posting for 31 days, sometimes you just need a little snooze alarm. Not that there was anything y'all were missing... it's been pretty quiet over on this front. We did Brady's two-year-old pictures, which came out adorable. I did notice that there was NO difference in his one-year-old and two-year-old pictures -- except his hair was longer. The rest of his face looked exactly the same, chubby cheeks and all.

Last Thursday we got a call from Children's Hospital asking us if we would like to move up our January appointment in Neurology to Friday. This was a first time visit recommended to us by Brady's geneticist. She felt because of his delays he should see someone there to rule out anything other than Williams. Plus, both the geneticist and Dr. Mervis in Kentucky felt he was still exhibiting some baby behavior that he should have outgrown by now, not typical of WS.

So, we trekked in, was seen 20 minutes late by a resident who examined Brady then reported his findings to his "supervisor". The resident was clueless about WS, admittedly so, which immediately made me feel concerned. I do appreciate his willingness to admit he knew nothing about WS, but how can he properly examine this child when he doesn't realize what is "typical" for WS and what isn't? He did spend a lot of time with him, and a lot of time discussing with his boss, then they both came in and clarified a few more things. I felt a bit better at that point.

They determined that his delays seemed typical of WS. One thing that he still has not outgrown from his baby stage is his flapping of the arms when he gets excited. He used to do it a lot more, for a lot of reasons, but it has definitely decreased. The doctor felt that since he is only two, his behavior has not regressed, and he seems to be "growing out" of the stage, they are not concerned. If he was four and doing that, it would be a different story. They did order a blood test to check his thyroid, since it hasn't been checked before, and an MRI to check for anything they are missing. Basically, all good news; not jumping for joy over the docs, but I know it could be worse :)

On another good note, I ran out of Enfamil last week, so I've been giving Brady half Calicilo, half whole milk for his bottle, on top of yogurt and ice cream. We had his calcium level checked and it has not gone up! He is at 10.3, normal is 8.5 to 10.5. Yeah! I am going to keep his bottle like this until we see the nutritionist in the beginning of December, then I will probably stop the Calicilo. It is covered under insurance, so it doesn't really matter. I am really trying to get him moving on the food ~ taking it, chewing it - ANYTHING! Michael gets nervous when he sees Brady gagging when there is food in the middle of his tongue - -we're all yelling, "Just move it, Brady! You can do it!" His little cheerleader section :)