A new year, new beginning...

The year 2013 was so phenomenal for us that it is hard to imagine how this year could ever compare, but we are ready for new beginnings. Parker is officially out of the "danger zone" with his immune system. For twelve weeks after transplant he was considered highly susceptible to anything and everything. The reason for this is that he received high dosages of IV anti-rejection medicine right after transplant. Those doses were strong enough that they knocked his immune system down for three whole months. We are extremely lucky that he has stayed as healthy as he has, especially with the dangerous flu season that has struck our area this year. Slowly but surely the bubble that we have tried to keep him in is fading away.

 Parker is starting to eat more and more. Just yesterday he completely ate half of a container of M&M minis. He let them melt in his mouth and actually swallowed them. Up until this point he would simply lick them and then discard them, so this is a huge milestone for him. The big question that EVERYONE asks over and over again is "How long does he have to have that tube?". The simple answer to this is- as soon as he can drink his required daily volume. It is an adult kidney, therefore, he has to drink the same volume that an adult is supposed to drink, or he risks damaging the beautiful new kidney that he was given. Each day he has to drink nearly a half gallon of fluid, and being that he wasn't a big eater or drinker before, he's having some trouble with this. We are working with some of the best therapists around to get him to eat and drink more, so hopefully he will have it out by end of summer.

In normal two year old fashion, he is into everything under the sun. He is climbing and digging in places that he never could before. His new thing is climbing on and off of the sofa as quickly as he can. He also loves climbing on and off of his scooters, which was a bit of an issue for him before since his legs weren't quite long enough to get over the scooter. He loves busting in on you while you are bathing, especially now that he knows how to open doors. So if you come to our house for a visit, be sure to lock the bathroom door behind you or you may have a surprise visitor.

His daily schedule is much more flexible now without the dialysis machine, so this weekend, while we had a warm spell, we took him to the zoo for his first trip. He loved it! Walking the entire zoo is something I didn't think that he would ever have the energy to do, but he proved me wrong. He spent very little time in the stroller, and loved climbing on the railings to see the animals.

Looking back at old lab reports from our dialysis days, I can't believe how healthy my baby is now. Things that fluctuated severely high or low before, like Potassium, Phosphorous, Sodium, and Calcium are completely stable now. His creatinine is holding stable at 0.1, which is near perfect. Last month he even had a report of less than 0.1, which is nearly unheard of! His doctors are all mind blown by this, because it's definitely not the norm for them. At the end of March we get to discontinue several medications and go to once a month clinics at the hospital, which will be wonderful!

We are finally dealing with "typical" toddler health issues. Parker has consistently had fluid build up in both of his ears for some time now. It is severe enough that he has failed parts of his hearing test because of it. It was always pushed to the back burner due to dialysis and transplant, but next month we finally get to correct it with tubes. Hopefully, this will do the trick and my baby will start babbling out new words soon.

Since transplant he has become such a "big boy" compared to before. This is just a few pictures to show you how big he thinks he is. 

His big boy sofa..

His big boy hair cut..

His new "cheese!" face..

I am a big boy and I don't need a diaper!