Regan Hunter Heath

Regan started school yesterday. I decided to tell his story with pictures so you can see how it has been for him.

His I gotta go where? face Here we are at school. Walking into school holding on to daddy

Here is my place at the table

Mommy and daddy are letting me play all day??

Here comes to bus!! Meme has waited all day!

My first bus ride!!!!

Sitting on the porch waiting on time for the bus

Regan saying bus ride!!

Making our way to the end of the driveway

Jumping is so much fun

The bus is coming!!!!!

These steps are HUGE!!

The bus is turned around and heading to school

Regan loves Summer!! He gets to hang out at the pool and play in the yard til dark! He has learned to swim underwater. He loves jumping into the pool and going under for his toys. He and daddy get a little to rough for meme but they have a blast together swimming and wrestling.

We have told Regan that when we get back from our trip this weekend that he will no longer be wearing diapers at home. We will still wear them to go to town but no more at home. It's time!!!! He has made some progress and then he goes backwards so after Tuesday evening we will be spending lots of time at home so we can really work on it. I think that he will get it with the right reward, CANDY. I know you aren't supposed to be rewarding with candy but sometimes you gotta break the rules.

Regan has learned shapes!! He knows circle,triangle,square,star,heart. He sometimes knows rectangle but can get that and square mixed up.  He is able to tell us color more. Even though most of the time everything is blue. He knows that meme's toes are red and Daddy's car is white. So he is still a long way from where he should be but it's progress.

Regan will get to experience the world with his little brother come October. Yep, another boy! We are super excited to get to meet him and Regan still comes and kisses my belly every so often. I'm not sure he understands what a huge change this will be for him but I'm pretty sure he will adjust fairly quickly.

I guess that's about all! Have a great 4th!!

School is offically out for the summer today!! Yes!  Regan and I spent the day yesterday in our little pool. We had a great time after I convinced him to finally get in. He was a little nervous at first but then 5 hours later we had to drag him out.   We may both be a little bit sunburned today.

It's time for meme to break out her school stuff and keep him in the learning mood. We are working really hard on learning to use scissors, copy a color sequence, still working on colors and adding to his shapes. He has made such progress in the last 6 months I can't wait to see where we are in another 6 months.

We find out in 13 days if Regan will have a brother or sister and we are very excited!!!

Wow! What a bad meme I have been not updating this site in over a month. What can I say other than Regan keeps us going.

We have been to see a Neuro surgeon about Regan's neck. We are to watch his activites closely and discourage things that could cause his instability to become worse or let him injure his neck. 

We recently had our IEP meeting to tell us where Regan will be placed for the 09-10 school year. He will be in the Preschool program at Alexandria!!! WooHoo!!! We even set it up for him to ride the bus to school. He is very excited about that even if meme isn't.

 We thought that he might never get there but  his speech is greatly improved.  Even using two and three word sentences like.... What was that?  I had a bath,  Meme chicken please, Golf cart ride, Bye Bye Dog, Sprite drink please, Daddy home, Maw maw and paw paw, Nay and Pop, Hey truck hey, bye truck bye. We still have a LONG way to go but he is improving!!

Right now our favorite things to do are: ride in the truck, ride the golf cart, play ball, take baths at the grandparents houses, play with the dog, watch elmo, see cows and horses, go to school (UCP center), watch American Idol,read books and play cars. He is such a boy!!

Well My mom and Regan made it through the Xrays. I of course couldn't go in  and when Regan realized I wasn't there he started yelling Meme. I of course then stood in the hall way of Childrens hospital and cried like a baby. That was the first procedure he has had done that I couldn't be with him. Oh, how it hurt a mommy's heart!

I had a message two days later from his pediatrician for a referral to Childrens to see an orthopedic surgeon.  When I called to find out why there were some issues with his Xrays. They reported instability at C1-C2 and a genetic fusion at C2-C3.  Our appointment with the Ortho was on March 18th.

There we learned that he also has instability where the skull meets C1 then also C1-C2 has instability. Right now the instability is 7mm. They don't like to do anything unless the instability is 10mm or greater.  We have now been referred to a NeuroSurgeon at Children's since the instability includes his skull a neuro takes over his care. Our appointment with him is April the 6th.  There is a chance that this instability could increase and Regan will need to have his spine fused in the areas of instability. This is something that we are not wanting to happen, but know that if it could help keep Regan from having spinal cord injury then we will go ahead with the procedure. 

Other than a scary issues with his neck. We are all doing well. Regan is beginning to use three and four word sentences. Like I had a bath. Meme, Daddy home.  I want that football.  Its so fun hearing his words come out and I love his voice.  I am offically 10 weeks pregnant and feeling pretty good. Morning sickness has its times but overall  I'm just excited to be pregnant!!

Thanks for checking on us. I couldn't decide if we wanted to renew his website this year but decided that it is worth it having a place to journal what is going up with his life.

Regan had his four year old check up this week. 

 
    He weighed 33lbs. and was 40 inches!! That is small on a typical chart but on the DS charts he was above the 95th percentile on height and around the 50th percentile on weight.  He is like his daddy!
    It was time for his thyroid testing and also time for four shots!!! Ricky got to experience the joy of trying to hold him during both of these things. It was his first time trying to hold him and it was an adventure!!  We got the lab results back and his thyroid testing was okay!
    My mom and I are going to take him to Children’s in Birmingham on Thursday to have his x-rays done of his neck. It had been over a year and so Dr. Ebba wanted to make sure we got those done again.  Last time it took 3 of us and since I won't be able to be exposed to the x-ray machine I'm sure my mom will have a chore ahead of her! Let's hope it goes well!!
   

    Regan's birthday was a week ago! Gosh I almost forgot about it!! We had two small parties for him one with my side and one with Ricky's side.  Regan doesn't enjoy being sung to. He hates loud noises and people staring at him so we just did a low key thing. It was nice and relaxing.  Thank you to all that sent him wishes! Although he doesn't understand it I do and it means a lot that you all care for my Regan like you do!!
Have a great weekend!!

Regan had a dentist appointment this week that left his mommy in tears!!!!!!  Regan has odd shaped teeth and so it took the doctor several tries to get a cap to fit on his tooth and stay. What was supposed to take 5minutes took 15 minutes. Regan was so upset he busted the blood vessels on his face, neck, shoulders and chest. He looks like he was in a fight.  I held it together until we were out of the office and then I lost it. It was breaking my heart to hear "meme no please"  I just hated trying to hold him down. Next time Daddy is going!!!!

We also had a meeting this week to change his PT from twice a week to just once a week!!!! I'm excited that we will have a day not to be running around, to have a day we can be in our PJ's and just have some fun. He will still have something 4 days a week so he will still be busy!!!!

Regan is still improving on all of his skills.  His speech is improving daily. He is starting to be able to jump forward. This is a skill that I wasn't sure he would ever get. His imagination is running like crazy. He has conversations with his elmo, spiderman and all his toys. He has started "reading" books to his toys as well and even holds the book facing out so "they" can see the pictures. 

Potty training is still a work in progress. Some days like today he has done wonderful but yesterday he looked at us like we were crazy.   I'm hoping that he gets it soon.

Thanks for checking up on us!!

Today is the end of a wonderful year.  Regan has made great progress in this year. Here's a quick look at this year...

Decided to cut his own hair.

Rode his first rollercoaster

Took swimming lessons

Went swimming just about everyday

Learned to Jump!!

Attempted to burn down the house

Fell in love with the rides at Piegon Forge and remembered where they were as we drove into town the next time

Learned to dress himself

Learned which roads lead to which grandparents house

Will tell you which way to turn to go home

Got glasses

Lost glasses

Got a new pair of glasses

Found old pair of glasses

Learned to copy a circle

Painted many a crazy pictures

Fell in love with Christmas lights

Spent too many nihgts away from home.

We are excited about what 2009 will bring us.

Happy New Year!!!!