Gold Stars All Around!

We had our first social worker follow-up visit this week and we got a gold star for effort. She said that our adjustment has definetely been more difficult than most, but that she thinks we are doing a good job. She also said that Noah appears to be bonding well and is overall a happy kid. However, she said that he is smarter than the average bear and that could be one of the reasons he is having a harder transition than most because he is so much more aware of what is going on than most kids his age. I guess the good news is that he is smart :) We are certainly noticing that he picks up on words and just about everything else really quickly. If he sees us do something once he remembers and then tries to do it himself at a later time. One day last week he saw me filling the dishwasher and now helps me put the forks and spoons and plates in it everytime I do the dishes. I showed him once where each utensil goes and which direction to put them in and now he does it correctly everytime. He even corrects me if I do it "wrong". I know people always say that kids catch on quick, but I never thought it was that quick! Especially since I teach middle school and I have to say and show everything one hundred times before they do it right.

This week Noah also had his visit with the specialists at Stanford to determine what to do about his cystic kidney. He had lots of testing done and they said that overall things look pretty good, but that they want to do more testing to see if his bladder is functioning correctly. Apparently he is considered the same as someone with only one kidney since the right one doesn't work due to the cysts. They want to make sure to protect the one that still works at all costs. At some point he may need a transplant, but that will most likely happen 20 or 30 years in the future and that is the worst case scenario. Noah is scheduled to go in for more testing on May 7 and they will inject dye into his bladder to see if everything is working well. It doesn't sound like much fun especially since he needs to be awake for the procedure. We are praying that the results will be positive so that we won't have to repeat the ordeal. If all looks good, the doctors say he will only need to come in once a year for a check up to make sure everything is still working.

Noah also went swimming for the first time ever this week! After his initial hesitation, he caught on quickly to the idea of kicking and had a great time. He floated around with his fishy floaty ring and his froggy life vest and really enjoyed chasing mommy around the pool (with daddy pushing him around of course). Hopefully he will learn to love to swim... who knows... those big feet of his may make him the next Micheal Phelps :)