What's Been Happening!

Been a while but not a whole lot of things happening. We have been going and working out together and weighing on the Wii fitness board. Paul is doing great with his weight loss program and seems to win the weigh in every other week.

We had a combined birthday party for Grandma Baskette, Jackson ( his nephew), and myself. The theme was dinosaurs so we had a pinata which Paul totally enjoyed swinging at. He enjoyed handing out the gifts to Jackson.

We enjoyed a nice quiet Easter. His grandmother (my mom) took us out to dinner to red lobster as she wanted to do something but has a little apartment and feels she doesn't have enough room to have everyone to her house so she decided to take Paul's dad, brother Kevin, myself, and Paul out for dinner. We had a nice time.

Paul and I dyed and decorated eggs for the Easter bunny to hide and of course we did High School Music with putting the cast names on most of the eggs. He found all but one eggs which was in a funny place to find. The Easter Bunny brought him two movies , wallet, watch, and basketball eggs with gummy worms in them. Gummy worms are the only candy that Paul likes. We were suppose to have a baby shower for Paul's baby Micheal but it all got cancelled due to some of the kids getting sick so I went ahead gave Paul the gift we brought him. He loved it and thanked us a lot. His grandmother gave him a t-shirt for Micheal that read "What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's". So as you see everyone gets into the pretend with Paul. So here's our catch-up on Paul for now.

Working Out

Well we've been making an effort to go to the gym at least three days a week. Paul and I have been doing pretty good about it. He is in love with High School Music 1, 2, & 3 so he gets all dressed out in his jersey, he got from somewhere, and shorts and shoots baskets most the time I'm working on machines. His dad thinks he is obsessed with the shows because it reminds him of high school and Paul really misses high school. After he works out in the gym shooting baskets and running up and down the gym a couple of times dribbling I get him working out on some of the machines. He does okay with these but would rather just shoot baskets. His report from the doctors came back pretty good the leakage on his heart hasn't gotten any larger so we just keep an eye on it for another year and continue to lose a little more weight. He's done really well with this as he has now lost 27 lbs. He's slowed down some but what's funny is now everything he eats he wants to know the points. (We're doing weight watchers.) Last night at a dinner at our boating club he told me I couldn't have dessert cuz it was to many points. So I guess now we're watching each other.

He is now working on more of paintings as he got some more canvas yesterday so I'll post some of those when he's done. He is really pretty good at his art.

Trip to the Doctor's

Well Paul had his annual trip to his cardiologist. He has to go every year as he has a bi cu pis aorta, which means he has only two valves going into the heart instead of three. One of the valves has a leak so since birth the doctors have been keeping an eye on it. If the leak gets to large the doctor will have to go in and do surgery to repair it. He has also a very slow heart rate which the doctor said he would have to have a pace maker put in at sometime. Paul used to fight the whole trip as he hated going thru all the tests which actually were the less painful ones as there are no needles just a lot of wires. They do an echo plus a ekg so he gets hooked with wires and machines a couple of different times during the exam. When they hooked him up to the ekg this time he goes he's like the incredible hulk. He has decided this exam isn't as bad as his regular check ups cuz he gets poked with needle in that one.

So here's our visit.

First we go up the elevator to the doctors office.

We check in, they call us back then they weigh him and measure him. He's 5'2" and all a long I thought he was 5'.

We then go back into the exam room and they take his blood pressure and do a ekg.

The Dr. comes in ask questions, listen to his heart, and then orders a echo.

We then went back to another room where they did his echo and wait for results, which come in a couple of weeks.

The technician gave Paul a picture of his heart so now we have it on the fridge as he was really proud of this.

Thus being our trip to one of his annual trips to the one of his doctors.

And his prize for so being so good was he got his High School Musical 3 DVD which came out on the day of his appointment and he had to have.

Hockey Games & Valentines Day

We've had some fun times in the last two weeks.

First our grandson Carsen got to play hockey in between quarters of the winter hawks game at the Rose Garden in Portland. He's 7 and is getting better every year at the game and skating. Paul's Dad, brothers Tyson, Sam, and nephew Jackson, niece Samantha , Paul, and I went to the game. We had a great time and Paul loves to watch the game and see the mascot.

Then Valentines day came and we all know how Paul loves holidays. He had to get High School Musical Valentine cards and make them out for everyone and then he made his dad and I cards. He got to go to his aunt's house for dinner and a movie, which he got from mom and dad for valentines day. Madagascar 2. He watched that with his favorite Uncle Phil. He packed up his baby Micheal, along with the play pen and diaper bag to share the evening with his Aunt and Uncle. When I picked him up from his aunt's all he could say was how good his dinner was. She is a pretty good cook.

Then Valentines night after Mark and I had gone to bed Paul got my fake flowers of red and white roses and put them on the kitchen counter with a homemade card saying he loves me more. We have a little saying going back and forth with him saying he loves me more and I say I love him to the moon and back again. So I had that wonderful surprise for me when I got up this morning.

Now that Valentines is over we're getting ready for Easter so Paul was busy decorating my living room window with gel rabbits, eggs, and chicks. He has already decorated his living room so I guess now it's our time. He's ready to dye Easter eggs so we're trying to put a hold on that for a little while.

We have been doing weight watchers at home for all four of us as I have mentioned and Paul is doing great. He has won three of the last six weeks but this week he gained a pound after we discovered he has been sneaking food so going to have to keep a better eye on him. He goes Tuesday to the Heart Dr. and I'm sure she is going be happy with him as he has lost 25 lbs since last year.

Lots of changes

We've had some very busy weeks. First Paul's older brother Kevin moved back home for a while and now he has to share his living room with him. Paul was okay with this as long as he didn't have to give up his living room completely. When we told him Kevin was moving home and was taking over his living Paul wasn't to happy with that, but when he told him only had to share it he was happy. So Kevin and Paul spent the next week cleaning his living and organizing it to have room to for some of Kevin's stuff also. Their now working things out with the TV time. Paul does like having his brother home as he has someone to bug him.

The other exciting thing that has happen is on January 22, 2009 Paul became an uncle again. His brother Tyson and sister in law Sheri gave birth to baby boy. Paul loves being uncle and has two nieces and four nephews. He takes pride in this job and loves to play with them all. He got to over this Sunday and hold his newest nephew for the first time. This is where Micheal comes from as he watches his brothers with their families.

So we have been very busy changing rooms around and making new adjustments and of course changes are difficult for him sometimes.

A Week Of Many Things

Well we have had a quiet week. After one of his brother's car broke down and had to come stay at the house for a week while his Dad fixed it, Paul had to share his living room. That was a little hard for him but he also enjoyed have someone to play video games with. He work on his bedroom making a bigger baby room for Micheal since we told him we could not build a whole new house just so Micheal could have a room of his own.

Paul dividing his room with a sheet.

Paul has decided to have a baby shower now for Micheal so he made up invitation for the shower. He made envelopes with everyone names on it and then inside was the invite. It said on the outside of folded white paper For My Baby, then on the inside it says happy to be at Baby Shower go to my home. He has given these to each of his brothers and has one made up also for his grandmother. Now his oldest brother's wife just had a baby shower in Sept. and his cousin had one this summer that he went to and his third brother is having one in February so I guess he figures he needs one too. He says Micheal needs new clothes. So we will probably come up with something.

This Sunday we fixed a Turkey dinner, just fix it, but he figures it is Thanksgiving again. He decided it was his time to carve the turkey so his dad standing next to him let him do it. He was so proud of himself and he kept calling me to come in and take pictures of him doing. He loves to have his picture taken. He really thought he was big stuff.

One problem Downs have is a weight problem. Paul has a heart defect and was told last February it would a be a good idea to lose some weight, about 33 pounds. We joined weight watchers and by September he lost 25 pounds and then the Holidays started. Needless to say all diets went out the window. When he weighed the beginning of January he had gain back 12 pounds of what he had lost, so we have started weight watcher diet again this week with his dad, mom, and Paul with weigh-in on Sundays. We made this a competition between the three of us, with this week Paul winning. He thought he was top dog but we will see how he does next week. He lost 6 pounds.

Paul's Livng quarters

In a comment on my last post it was suggested that I tell how we have set Paul's living arrangements up. Paul has three older brothers and an older sister who all have moved away in their own places with their families. Paul wanted to move out on his own like them but he didn't want to leave Mom and Dad either. Well we have a five bedroom home with our bedroom and living room on one end of the house and the four bedrooms and bathroom on the other end so we took the biggest bedroom and turned it into a living room giving Paul his own little apartment to decorate as he wants. He has his own bedroom, bathroom, and living room. He loves to change the furniture around every other day. So he fills independent and loves to get things for his place. This summer he called his oldest brother up and told him he wanted a gray rug for his living room for Christmas and wanted black shelves from Mom and Dad. He got his shelves but his rug will probably have to wait til his birthday.

Now the story on Micheal. He wanted to have a baby like his brothers so we decided to get him a doll and made him take care of Micheal like a real baby. He had to feed him, change him, take him everywhere including putting him in a car seat and taking him shopping, movies, friends, etc. I had a baby cry on my computer so I would sound it off every so often so he would have to take care of Micheal. After about a week of this he has decided having Micheal was enough, but Micheal does have his own baby furniture and is thought of every so often. He likes to celebrate Micheal's birthday and gets him gifts every so often. He still likes to take him places sometimes. So Micheal has become part of our family also.