In November, Seth turned one! Shortly after his birthday he decided that walking was something he wanted to do and within a few weeks he worked on it until he now walks all over the place. Every day he seems to get less wobbly and more steady. He is now adding climbing to his repertoire.

We took him in for his one year well-child for a routine check and measurements in early December. He weighed 20 lbs 2 oz and was 28 inches tall. His weight is still in the 10th percentile, so we are happy with his consistency there. His height is no longer on the top of the chart, but closer to 50th percentile, but the doctor said height will often fluctuate as they grow and is not as consistent as the weight curve.

I had scheduled his appointment for nap-time, which might have been a problem. But as it turns out, it meant that he was pretty subdued and was very quiet and still during his exam. As the doctor listened to his heart, I waited for what he might say about his heart murmur. It turns out it is still there and hasn’t changed much. This is not cause for alarm since it still could be a normal heart murmur and not a sign of a problem, but I was hoping it would have started to fade by now.

Now, what I forgot to mention was that right before I made the appointment, we received an unexpected call from the Children’s Hospital. They hadn’t forgotten about us after all. The scheduling nurse had just been working extra hard to make sure we got to see Emma’s cardiologist, which she knew was important to us. She informed me that the boys both have appointments with him in June at the hospital in Little Rock. But she also let me know that they were hoping to see them earlier in January at the Lowell clinic if the cardiologist can make it this time. Those appointments are on the 27th. When I mentioned that we were no longer sure we wanted the appointments because both boys were doing fine and we didn’t want to pay for the echocardiograms, she replied that she had spoken directly to the cardiologist about this. He had said that he saw no need for the echocardiograms unless we felt a need for them. He is prepared to just listen to them. He thinks he can tell everything he needs just from that. After getting an estimate on the actual appointment cost with him, I told her I’d let her know what we decided.

So, after talking things over with our family practitioner, who still strongly encouraged us to get both boys checked, I went home and talked it over with John. We decided that the appointment costs were well worth it to get a second opinion from the cardiologist. We will be keeping our appointments. So now the question is just whether the weather will be OK for the doctor to fly up for the Lowell clinic in January, of if we have to wait until June.