Status quo

Benjamin had a follow-up appointment with his urologist this week. They did a sonogram and checked him out. Everything is pretty much status quo which is a good thing. His ureters remain somewhat dilated, but the doctor says this is not unusual and likely will not change. He says it isn't really a problem as long as Benjamin continues growing and stays healthy. It just will be the natural state for his ureters. Overall, Dr. Cortez is VERY pleased with how everything turned out and he says Benjamin seems to be doing well. Benjamin will have an additional test next month which involves injecting dye into his urinary tract and then taking Xrays to create an accurate picture of his system. The doctor wants to make sure everything is flowing as expected. At this point, we don't anticipate any problems, but you just never know. Other than that, if things continue to go well and it appears his bladder is functioning properly, the next surgery would be an abdominoplasty (the part of the surgery in January that Dr. Cortez opted not to do). This surgery would tighten up the walls of his abdomen and make his belly a little smaller. As far as I know, there isn't any urgency to completing this surgery. He said we may wait 6 to 12 months for it in order to give Benjamin plenty of recovery time. His body need time to grow without interruption. He certainly is doing that. He has become a little boy, not a toddler or baby any more!

Alex hit a home run at his game last week. It was awesome! We've been waiting all season for him to get a really nice hit. He drilled it down the first base line where the first baseman missed it. It rolled almost to the fence while Alex powered around the bases. Wow, he was flying around, while everyone in the stands cheered. You should have seen the grin on his face after the game. He was thrilled!!

Emma is working hard on reading these days. She is working towards a bronze medal in the accelerated reader program (a program where the kids read specific books, take a computer test and receive points). She's about halfway there, so she'll keep on reading, reading, reading.

Benjamin continues to amaze us. The other day, he was trying to play with Alex's remote control truck. Since it hasn't been used in quite a while, the battery needs to be recharged. I told Benjamin he couldn't use the remote because the battery needed charging. Then I went upstairs. The next thing we know, Benjamin is climbing up the stairs saying, "Batteries, batteries." Then, Sean noticed Benjamin had something in his hands. He looked and it turned out to be batteries. He had gone into the laundry room with his trusty stool and got some batteries out of the holder. Apparently, we need to move the batteries to a higher location.

Other than that, we've had dentist appointments, Sean went to Corpus Christi for a short conference, Emma had Girl Scouts and gymnastics, Benjamin had speech therapy and physical therapy, and Alex stayed home for a day with a yucky stomach. Such is a week in the life of the Buckley family...

Tomorrow, I think we're going strawberry picking. Yum!! I can't wait for some fresh strawberries.